Governing Body

Role of the Governing Body:

The main role of the governing body is to operate at a strategic level, leaving the head teacher and senior leadership team responsible and accountable to the governing body for the operational day to day running of the school.

As such the three core functions of the governing body are:

Ensuring clarity of the Catholic vision, ethos and strategic direction

Holding the head teacher to account for the educational performance and Catholic character of the school and its pupils

Overseeing the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

Aligned to this, the governing body is there to be a ‘critical friend’ providing the right balance between supporting and challenging the performance of both the head teacher and the school.

The Governing Body meets six times during the course of an academic year. Generally governors will be responsible for a specific area of governance within the school, dependent upon their skill set. The role will involve spending a certain amount of time within school to complete monitoring visits – but the time spent on this can be tailored to a specific governors time restrictions and other commitments.

How to become a Governor:

Governors come in all shapes and sizes and there is no magic formula when it comes to putting together a successful governing body. But it is important that the governing body has a good mix of skills, knowledge and experience.

There are two routes by which you can be appointed as a school governor at St. Edmund Campion:

Foundation Governors: These are appointed specifically by the Bishop to ensure the preservation and development of the school’s Catholic character, to ensure that the school is being conducted as a Catholic school, and to represent the Bishop’s education policy to the governing body. In order to be considered for appointment you must be a practising Catholic. For further information on this please e-mail:

Parent Governors: There are always two parent governors. Parent governors are ‘representative parents’ rather than ‘representatives of the parents’, and in common with other governors, are concerned with the welfare of the school as a whole. When a parent governor vacancy arises, this will be communicated to parents and an election will take place for which any parent with a child at the school will be eligible.

The current term for a governor is 4 years, and a governor can serve up to 3 terms if they so choose.

Message from the Chair:

I would like to introduce myself as St. Edmund Campion Primary’s current Chair of Governors. I have a child at our school myself, and it has been by privilege to be involved in governance here since 2014. I would invite any of our pupils’ parents or carers to contact me via this website, or by letter addressed to the school office, if they have any comments or concerns to which they would like to draw my attention.

Peter Jackson

Governing Body Members:

Chair: Peter Jackson

Vice Chair: Anne Murray

Foundation Governors:

Michael Gemson

Father John Mckay

Karen Richards

Anita Blake (Head Teacher)

Parent Governor: Nicola Davis

Parent Governor: Andy Dowding

Contact:

If at any time you wish to contact the governors you may write a letter to the Chair of Governors, mark the letter ‘Confidential’ and hand it to the school reception. They will ensure it is passed on the Chair, unopened and in strict confidence.